Month: March 2018

Trump has no comment on Stephon Clark

As pointed out in this tweet from Toure, Trump called Roseanne but didn’t call Stephon Clark’s family.

Symone Sanders had excellent points on CNN:

The White House called the shootings of Stephon Clark and Alton Sterling “local matters”.  Trump wouldn’t comment on them but he had something to say when a white person was killed by an illegal immigrant because that appeals to his base.

Just more examples of Trump’s bigotry.  Sad!

Trump is right – the Second Amendment will never be repealed

Retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens ignited a controversy by calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment in a New York Times opinion column.

Trump tweeted that the Second Amendment will never be repealed and he is right.

Here are some opinions from New York Times readers.

Stevens’s appeal is not helpful to meaningful discussions on gun control.  It feeds into right-wing paranoia.  Most people do not want to repeal the Second Amendment.  I would vote in favor of it but it’s not a priority since it would never have much support.)  That’s not the issue.  Gun control advocates want universal background checks, bans on assault weapons and other specific items that would reduce gun violence.  This is just a distraction.  Sad!

 

Is Trump a good role model for children?

61% of Republicans think Trump is a good role model for children.

2% of Democrats think Trump is a good role model for children.

This article includes interviews with conservatives.

I can understand how people voted for Trump if, for example, they are opposed to abortion.  I can’t understand how anyone could consider a vindictive, lying, philandering, incompetent bigot to be a role model.  Sad!

Trump punishes states that didn’t vote for him

Trump punishes blue states and rewards red ones.  This is clear in his immigration policies, the new census question and his efforts to block the Gateway rail project.

Now, he is using transportation grants to reward his voters and punish the rest.  This Wall Street Journal article states:

“Some $314 million of those grants, or 64% of the total, will go to projects in rural locations, defined as those outside areas with 50,000 or more residents. About 19% percent of the U.S. population lives in those rural areas.”

All presidents are partisan but I don’t recall one who has been this vindictive.

Sad!

 

The future of the Supreme Court

It appears that the Supreme Court will become more conservative in its decisions this year.  The article also discusses apparent disharmony between the future.

The Republican theft of a Supreme Court seat that should have been filled by Obama is going to set off a chain reaction of bad consequences.  I am not just talking about a more conservative court.  Let’s also recall that Republican-appointed justices have been in the majority for over 40 years.

At some point, there will be payback.   If, for example, Trump tries to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the latter part of his term, Democrats could vote against it using the same logic Republicans did in 2016 – wait for the next election.  I would support that.

Also remember that if Clinton had won, congressional Republicans may not have let her fill the seat left by Scalia’s death.

Thanks to McConnell’s unwillingness to give the Garland nomination even a hearing, there will never be votes on justices that are not mostly along party lines.  It’s been trending that way with Gorsuch as an extreme example.

Here are examples of prior votes (For-Against):

Scalia:  98-0

Kennedy: 97-0

Ginsburg: 96-3

Ginsburg was the last (probably last ever) to get 90 votes.

More recent ones:

Alito: 58-42

Sotomayor: 68-31

Kagan: 63-37

Gorsuch: 54-45

If Trump makes other appointments, he has made it clear they will be very conservative.  When Democrats get a chance to pick, I expect the response to be a very liberal justice.  Trump has polarized the country and the Democratic party has become more liberal in response to his terrible behavior and policies.

In the future, say 30 years from now, I expect all justices will be extreme conservatives or extreme liberals and most decisions will be made on party lines.  That’s not ideal but you have McConnell to thank for it.  Sad!

Update:  Trump’s tweet this morning shows how he thinks only of party lines not the law.  The Supreme Court does not belong to either political party.  Their loyalty should be to the Constitution.